Microalgae as Functional Ingredients in Savory Food Products: Application to Wheat Crackers

Abstract

Crackers are widely consumed snack foods and there is an increasing trend in adding functional ingredients to their composition. In the present work, the dried biomasses of four microalgae strains—Arthrospira platensis F&M-C256, Chlorella vulgaris Allma, Tetraselmis suecica F&M-M33, and Phaeodactylum tricornutum F&M-M40—were used as a source of proteins, antioxidants, and other bioactive molecules in artisanal wheat crackers. Two incorporation levels were tested: 2% (w/w) and 6% (w/w). The impact of microalgae addition was evaluated in terms of physical properties, biochemical composition, antioxidant activity, in vitro digestibility, and sensory characteristics. Microalgae crackers presented stable color and texture throughout eight weeks of storage. Microalgae crackers were slightly thinner and lighter than the control but presented a similar density in agreement with scanning electron microscope images, indicating that gas retention was not greatly affected by microalgae addition. Regarding biochemical composition, 6% A. platensis and C. vulgaris crackers presented a significantly higher protein content (13.2–13.5%), for which they could be claimed to be a “source of protein” according to the Regulation (EC) No. 1924/2006. A. platensis crackers showed the highest antioxidant activity and attained better sensory analysis scores. T. suecica and P. tricornutum crackers showed high phenolic content and antioxidant activity but attained low sensory scores mainly because of their unattractive fishy off-flavor.

Carotenoids and Chlorophylls as Antioxidants

“…Spirulina has recently been approved as a food, opening the door to new food formulations enriched with different microalgae. For example, the dried biomasses of four microalgae strains, Arthrospira platensis , Chlorella vulgaris , Tetraselmis suecica , and Phaeodactylum tricornutum, were used to prepare wheat crackers [ 177 ]. The authors reported that higher amounts of microalgae increased the antioxidant capacity measured via the DPPH method.…”

Lactic Acid Fermentation of Arthrospira platensis (Spirulina) in a Vegetal Soybean Drink for Developing New Functional Lactose-Free Beverages

“…A. platensis is considered safe in many countries (e.g., in EU, Australia, United States) and widely commercialized as dietary supplement (powder, capsules, or tablets) (Borowitzka, 2013). A. platensis biomass is also increasingly used as food ingredient, incorporated into gluten-free pasta (Fradinho et al, 2020), bakery products (Batista et al, 2017(Batista et al, , 2019Niccolai et al, 2019b), candies, yogurt, and soft drinks (Christaki et al, 2011;Niccolai et al, 2019a).…”

Microalgae as novel ingredients for the formulation of food products

“…Water loss and changes in the dimension of structure occurring upon baking can also greatly influence the appearance of snacks (Batista et al, 2019). As expected, the addition of microalgae with increasing levels from 1 to 4% decreased a* and b* values of microalgae-enriched snacks colours significantly (p < 0.05) ( Table 6).…”

“…Regarding the lightness parameter L* significantly (p < 0.05) reduces after baking with the addition and increasing amounts of microalgae incorporation for both species compared with the control, 3D-printed microalgae-enriched snacks │191 causing darkening of the snacks. This effect may be associated to a higher pigment degradation of chlorophyll and carotenoids because of the baking process; or with a pigment saturation effect above certain microalgae concentrations, contributing to colour changes in microalgae-enriched snacks (Batista et al, 2019). It may be questionable if such dark green colours are acceptable for consumers.…”

“…Availability of microalgae has led to the production of novel food products . In most studies microalgal biomass is added to traditionally baked-foods such as biscuits (Gouveia et al, 2008), bread , breadsticks (Uribe-Wandurraga et al, 2019) and crackers (Batista et al, 2019). However, to the best of our knowledge, addition of microalgal biomass has not been thoroughly investigated to fabricate 3D printed foods (Uribe-Wandurraga et al, 2020b;Vieira et al, 2020).…”